Visual Coloring: Joen Wolfrom

Last night I started reading a book by Joen Wolfrom called Visual Coloring. It’s not a brand new book (2007 from C&T Publishing) but it’s new to me and I’m finding her ideas really interesting.

She collects photos/ads/images containing color combinations she finds attractive–exciting to her soul, if you will. She files the images into categories such as earthy, watery, warm, cool, autumn, winter, soft, tropical, etc.

When she’s ready to start a quilt/project, she goes to her file and pulls an image with colors that will work in to what she has in mind: here she considers who the quilt is for, how it will be used, the mood she’s after and so on.

She enlarges the chosen image to 8.5 x 11. By studying it carefully, she chooses fabrics in colors to match the image’s colors. It’s so interesting to see her photos and the fabrics she chose based on the photos. There’s a gallery of quilts made using this technique of visual coloring.

If you’re interested in a color method that’s unique, fast and easy, I’d recommend this book. I’m excited to try visual coloring, so the first thing on my list is to start my file of color inspirations. I’ll keep you posted.

About Diane Harris

I'm an editor for Quiltmaker magazine in Golden, Colorado, USA. For six years, I wrote pattern instructions, product reviews and how-to articles. Then I spent four years as QM's Interactive Editor, working to generate much of our online content. Now I'm back to patterns and how-tos, which is a great fit for me. I still love writing about quilt-related topics for Quilty Pleasures, and I always have my finger on the pulse of the quilting world. I teach a variety of quilt classes and give guild programs, too. Reach me by email: editor@quiltmaker.com.